Promotion

Ramírez's Carlos the Jackal cut for cinema

Back in November of last year we heard that Édgar Ramírez was set to star as the terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez also known as Carlos the Jackal after a copy of the Fredrick Forsyth novel The Day of the Jackal was found amongst his belongings, however the final work is getting a very limited release before being cut down for a U.S. release.

Apparently the film will be heading to The Sundance Channel for a three part mini-series release, and then cut down to be released in American cinemas and on video on demand. There's no word on making the full version available to everyone else to see.

Carlos the Jackal tells the story of Ilich Ramírez Sánchez aka Carlos the Jackal, a man who trained at a guerrilla warfare school in Cuba while he was being educated which he then continued in London and Moscow after which he headed to Palestine in 1970 to train with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and carried out various anti-Israel attacks.

The terrorist attack he was most known for was for his participation in a raid on the OPEC headquarters which resulted in over sixty hostages being taken and a hostage flight through various Arab countries which saw the release of hostages and the hostage takes granted asylum and escape.

Two attacks on France failed, one was on the TGV train with multiple bombs placed aboard and another was an attack on France's largest nuclear power station.

He was handed to French authorities on August 14th 1994 by Syria, who had been keeping him protected, and was put to trial in December of 1997, found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Édgar Ramírez took the role as the terrorist and was directed by Olivier Assayas who pulled together an international cast and filmed through worldwide locations for the film.

However despite all this, the story from The Hollywood Reporter makes it sound like Carlos the Jackal will get a very limited release in the original format, and the version that most people are likely to see is the cut down film version.

I do hope that the film is going to get a proper release at some point, even if it is going to be on DVD and Blu-ray only, it's certainly deserving of it.